22 types of Sales Funnels or Buyers Journeys

22 types of Sales Funnels or Buyers Journeys

A “Sales Funnel“, is where your website visitors can come in the top and sales comes out the bottom. The inbound methodology calls these buyers journeys.

In simple terms, you get your online visitors to go through a “capture page” where you can gather their contact information, usually a name & email and then follow up with them using email with additional Call To Actions to eventually lead to a sale and convert them into a paying customer.

There are many different types of sales funnels from webinar funnels to physical product funnels and everything in between.

These funnels each have a specific purpose and you can build any of these in ClickFunnels (referral link) in an hour or two.

Here are 22 types of sales funnels you can use to convert visitors into customers.

1) The Sales Letter Funnel

Use a traditional sales letter to sell your products or services.

This funnel uses a long form sales letter to sell the product or service up front. It gets its name because of the script Russell Brunson uses for his sales letters in the DotComSecrets book called “Star, Story, Solution.”

The sales letter sells your front end product, and then you have upsells and downsells immediately after the main offer to increase the average cart value.

2) The Squeeze Page Funnel

Use curiosity to generate leads with this simple two-page sales funnel.

The goal of a squeeze page is to get your visitor to give you their email address.

These pages have very few other distractions. Often times, not even a logo on the page or any complicated footers or extra links. The #1 secret to get the highest conversion rate on a squeeze page is to use a curiosity-based headline. Then they have to put in their email address and click “submit” to figure out the answer to the question.

The better the curiosity, the more likely they are to give you their email address. Squeeze pages, are great when you are going after a new audience so you don’t use a lot of branding. Focusing on curiosity to get them to opt-in is the goal. Then, on the next pages in the funnel is when you can start introducing your branding, other content, videos, etc.

3) The Membership Funnel

Create a membership site and sell access to it through this funnel.

Membership Funnels were created to sell people into membership sites, paid newsletters and more. There are different ways you could sell a membership site (for example, with a webinar or a sales letter), but in this template we will be using a video sales letter. On the first page, someone will typically signup for some type of trial. On the Thank You Page they get a link to create their account in the member’s area. Users create their own unique username and password and content unlocks based on the user’s specific purchases.

4) The Survey Funnel

Find out who your visitors are first and then send them into the right funnel.

A survey funnel has two main purposes. The first is to help your visitors engage with you more because they are required to answer questions and make micro commitments. The second is it allows you to figure out who your visitors are, and then you can show them a different sales message based on who they are.

So in the survey I may ask questions like, “Are you a man, or woman.” If they choose man, I would then direct them to a version of my funnel that is setup to sell to a man, but if they tell me that they are a woman, I may have a different sales video or webinar to show them.

5) The Video Sales Letter Funnel

Use video to sell your products or services through a VSL funnel.

A video sales letter funnel has a video that makes the sale for your product or service. Often times people will hide the “Add To Cart” button until after the video has revealed the price. This isn’t necessary, but simple to do inside of ClickFunnels. The video sales letter sells your product, you can include an Order Form Bump on the order form, and then we normally have an upsell and potentially a downsale.

6) The Reverse Squeeze Page Funnel

Give value first, then ask for their email with a reverse squeeze funnel.

Use a Reverse Squeeze Page Funnel to give before you take. Give away some of your best information and items before asking for a visitor to optin. Then, ask customers to “optin for more” after they watch the video.

This is helpful when you need to drop your customer’s walls quickly since you’ve already contributed to your ‘relationship’ with them. Usually, you’ll have a lower conversion rate than a traditional Squeeze Page Funnel, but the quality of the leads will be much higher. The Thank You Page is used to give more information and Share with their friends.

7) The 2-Step Tripwire Funnel

Use a low ticket front end product and then upsell them your others products.

A Tripwire is a low ticket front end product that is so irresistible people have to purchase it. After they put in their credit card, you can then upsell them your more expensive products through Order Form Bumps and One Click Upsells or Downsells. The ‘Two-Step’ gets its name from the Two-Step Order Form used on the first page of this funnel-type. During Step One, a potential customer is asked for and submits their contact information. During Step Two, the potential customer selects their product and enters their credit card information. The real power of the two-step comes from the ability to follow-up with a potential customer if they didn’t complete Step Two. Upsells and Downsells follow the first page to increase the Average Cart Value. Typically, the goal of this funnel is to break even on ad-spend, then ascend paying customers to higher-ticket offers on the Thank You Page.

8) The Live Demo Funnel

Demonstrate your product through your own live demo funnel.

The Live Demo Funnel is a great way to show off your product by you simply using it in front of your customers. This gives the entrepreneur a way to answer live questions and demonstrate their product. Do this by hosting a periodic live show that others can also attend live. Remind viewers where they can get the product you’re showing and keep additional episodes below.

9) The Invisible Funnel

Sell access to an event, but charge them after it’s over if they like it.

Invisible Funnels work by giving away a lot of value for free upfront and only charging if the customer liked what they received. It’s like going to a restaurant and only paying if you liked the food. Although it is free to attend, visitors register their seat after a Video Sales Letter on the first page by entering their credit card information even though no money is charged. An OTO is offered on the second page to increase Average Cart Value with additional products offered on the thank you page. If the customer likes the free training they are told to “do nothing, and your credit card will be billed in two days. If you didn’t like the training, just let me know and we won’t bill you at all.”

10) The Lead Magnet Funnel

Give people an ethical bribe in exchange for their email address.

A lead magnet funnel is similar to the other optin funnels, except you are actually giving away something in exchange for their email address. It may be a report or video, but it’s typically something tangible that they are exchanging for their email address.

11) The Hero Funnel

Let people know who you are and how to connect with you.

Use a Hero Funnel to showcase you as the entrepreneur, your story, and build a list of followers while you do so. This funnel starts by sharing some of your bio, getting people to join your email newsletter, and then asking them to follow you on your social media accounts.

12) The Auto Webinar Funnel

The Auto Webinar Funnel is used after an entrepreneur has proven their offer several times previously in the Webinar Funnel. The major difference in this funnel is that the historically best converting webinar is uploaded online (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) and is embedded in its own “Webinar Broadcast Page.”

Auto webinars can play every hour around the clock selling your products and services automatically for you. Someone registers for the webinar on the registration page, then they are taken to a confirmation page where they can see the date and time for their event. They are then emailed links to indoctrination pages where you can get them excited about the training they either are about to get on, or just completed.

After their presentation time has passed, they are then emailed links to a replay room where they have one last chance to watch the webinar.

13) The Homepage Funnel

A traditional “website” that pushes people into your core sales funnels.

The Home Page Funnel lets the entrepreneur have elements of a traditional “home page” website, but turn it into an actual lead funnel. The first page tells the story of the business and invites visitors to optin. They can also choose from the most popular products featured below. As opposed to the Hero Funnel, which highlights the entrepreneur, a home page funnel is good at featuring the business’ origins with several popular products.

14) The Webinar Funnel

This funnel will get people to registered and attend your webinar events.

The Webinar Funnel gives the entrepreneur more time to close potential customers at a higher price point, as most webinars are at least one hour long, and gives more time to address the false beliefs of customers. Webinar Funnels are an “event” and are broken into two phases. During the first phase, visitors register for a seat to attend and hear success stories to increase curiosity. Unlike the Auto Webinar Funnel, this live version is usually hosted on a 3rd party software (Go-To-Webinar, Zoom, etc). During the second phase, visitors attend the live webinar and watch replays while the window to buy begins to close, creating true scarcity and urgency.

To learn more on how to create a webinar that sells, read my book “Expert Secrets” and it shows you slide by slide what to say to sell any product or service. You can get a free copy at www.ExpertSecrets.com.

15) The Ask Campaign Funnel

Find out what your customers actually want before you create it for them.

Use an Ask Campaign funnel at all stages of your business to find out what customers actually want. Typically, the open-ended question is phrased, “What’s Your #1 Question/Challenge With XYZ?” Customer responses become the basis of your offers and helps you discover the false-beliefs potential customers will experience before they’ll give you money. You can also offer the product as a gift if they respond to your campaign.

16) The Cancellation Funnel

Create a survey asking people why they are leaving then try to save the sale.

The Cancellation Funnel is used when a customer is trying to either refund, cancel a service, or return a product. Many times they are canceling because they don’t understand something about what you offer. Doing a quiz first lets you figure out what their specific concern is, and then you can try to save the sale on the next page. This can drastically reduce refunds, cancellations and churn.

17) The Application Funnel

Have people apply to work with you through an application funnel.

Application Funnels work by using a “take away” sale, where the potential client must ‘apply’ to become a client. It lets you qualify people to work with you and is used often in high end coaching and consulting.

18) The Product Launch Funnel

Built anticipation for your new product with our product launch funnels.

The Product Launch Funnel lets an entrepreneur build anticipation before a customer is allowed to buy a product. Small marketing “previews” about the product are sent, usually at least a day apart, to build scarcity and urgency for the final day when the “cart opens” and customers may buy for a limited time. A defining feature of the Product Launch Funnel is closing the cart after a few days. This concept was pioneered by Jeff Walker and helped thousands of entrepreneurs to launch new companies overnight. You can learn more about what to put in the product launch videos in both the “Dot Com Secrets” book as well as the “Expert Secrets” book.

19) The Daily Deal Funnel

Make an irresistable offer to get new customers (Nickname: Groupon Funnel)

Companies like Living Social and Groupon made the Daily Deal Funnel famous by getting companies to make an irresistible offer to get new clients into the front door. You can quickly create an offer, and run it as an evergreen campaign to consistently get new people into your business. Begin with a Two-Step Order Page where you make the special offer, then on the Thank You Page, encourage your customers to share the same deal with their friends.

20) The Storefront Funnel

A traditional ecommerce “website” that pushes people into your core funnels.

The Storefront Funnel is a small funnel that is similar to window shopping. It’s a single page where all of your products sit together with links to other individual funnels and products. It mimics a more traditional eCommerce website, but each product pushes into a funnel that efficiently sales that product.

21) The Bridge Funnel

Use a Bridge Funnel when you need to connect two different, but related ideas for the customer, or to pre-frame the thing you really want to sell. This is especially helpful for affiliate or network marketers who don’t control the pages they are sending their visitors to when they are ready to signup. This pre-frame bridge page gives you the ability to presell them before sending them into a funnel you don’t control.

22) The Summit Funnel

Summit Funnels are the perfect way for entrepreneurs to provide value and become more of an authority figure in their industry. It happens by putting together an online summit with multiple speakers that you interview. You let people register for the summit for free, and then potentially upsell them on the recordings.

It’s a great way to build a list and brand your authority. On the Sales Letter Page, I’d get a biography of each person and put their headshot on the registration page. My upsell would include offering the recordings of the event, and then on the Share Page I’d get them to invite their friends to the event.

In closing

One or more of these sales funnels can be applied to your business to help you make more money.

You won’t know unless you try and the best way is by doing it like the rest of us Funnel Hackers.

Building Sales Funnels with ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is one of the best sales funnel applications out there.

It simplifies the design process for creating all of the types of sales funnels mentioned in this post.

Craig Cherlet

Craig is one of Marketing Stream's co-founders. He's spent 15+ years working with companies to develop and implement digital products & growth strategies.
Craig also blogs about online business on his personal blog at CraigCherlet.com.You can also find and follow him on these social sites.

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